We’re up to our eyeballs in boxes these days but thought we’d post some items we’ve been interested in, namely, (1) Prehistoric sex art, or maybe just sex; (2) all the articles about psychopathy lately, and (3) the lorcaserin positive FDA advisory committee recommendation. We’re just noting these in passing so we don’t forget to mention these.

(Our focus lately has been on the entire Hormones and Behavior 61 (2012) volume, which is solely on oxytocin, vasopressin and social behavior and has with Larry Young, of prairie vole animal model persuasion, as one of the editors. (More on that later, this is our summer beach read, when we’re done unpacking boxes)).

1. Is it natural to make things that look like sex organs?

Having just moved, we went to Ikea to pick up a few things to tide us over while other things are on order, and we were shocked, we say, shocked at this wonderfullyhorribly obscene Markus chair with the phallic imagery. (See pic above). (Pretty funny, Ikea designers, especially since when you sit down it looks like it’s. . . well. . . dangling. Which begs the question: Who is “Markus”?).

Oh well, maybe it’s natural for people to design things as sex organs.

Now, our favorite art is prehistoric, and we’ve watched Cave of Forgotten Dreams about Chauvet both in 3 d and on Netflix. (That Werner Herzog, can his films weep? Do they dream? Do they love? No, they only exist in the silent void we call life.) And, as some of you loyal readers may recall, your loyal bloggist has access to a particular phallic-like zoomorphic lithic from, we are told, the same region as the vulva pic. We previously published an e book on this, ‘The Mystery Lithic: Neanderthal Zoomorph or Sex Toy?” where we assumed the object was of Neanderthal origin. (We depublished because, frankly, we the title did not have its intended effect of evoking information, in fact, we suspect it was off-putting, but now, having no shame, we put it back up):

Lorcaserin gets the nod from the FDA, looks like we’ll have a fairly decent anti-appetite med on the market sometime soon. (Guesses are June, after the PDUFA date, or else with a three month delay for DEA scheduling).

What gives with the regulators? Do regulators finally realize that if obesity were a line item in the healthcare budget it would be as big as the DoD? Are the clouds parting because Pfizer’s Lipitor patent expired and the 180 day exclusivity is up? Did the food industrial complex wangle some kind of subsidy? Is the EMEA going to go forward regardless of the vested interests in the US, and so the political blowback would be too great? (You know us, always game for a conspiracy).(But even conspiracies can be true, recall our Goldman Sachs conspiracy).